Obama appointees may launch 2014 policy blitz

Johnson and Mayorkas also are in a tight spot. About 40 percent of the department’s top management jobs remain vacant or with civilian acting directors, raising questions about whether they have the resources to move controversial rules on immigration, aviation, rail and cargo security.

“I don’t see a lot moving,” said Denise Krepp, a former Obama appointee as chief counsel for the U.S. Maritime Administration. She predicted delays on new homeland security rules because of White House resistance and the vacancies. Johnson is “not going to be willing to move those regulations until those offices get filled. Even then, it’s going to be difficult.”

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At Foggy Bottom, Secretary of State John Kerry will get some critical political help as he travels the world trying to build out Obama’s foreign policy legacy.

New faces on the job include Anne Patterson as an assistant secretary for near Eastern affairs, a job that covers everything from turmoil in Egypt to the Syrian civil war, Iran nuclear negotiations and Middle East peace talks; and Heather Higginbottom, a deputy secretary tasked with managing budget cuts and diplomatic security reforms in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks at the U.S. consulate in Libya.

“You need someone to run the store and that’s what Heather will do,” said former State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. “Given all the policy balls in the air, you need that additional leadership position to ensure that all the tough questions get leadership attention and that interagency coordination advances where necessary.”

Patterson’s arrival couldn’t come soon enough either. She’s the first Senate-confirmed person to her post in more than a year, filling “in the hot seat on how do you actually get results in a very complicated region in the world that had a very difficult period in 2013,” said Brian Katulis, a natural security and foreign policy expert at the Center for American Progress.

The Pentagon’s political ranks also are growing. Incoming Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James has some tough battles ahead with the national guard and reserves, aging equipment and in addressing a lingering sexual assault scandal involving dozens of her branch’s recruiters and trainers. A former House Armed Services Committee aide and president of the technical and engineering sector at Science Applications International Corporation, James is “someone who has prepared all her life for this job,” Punaro said.

Koskinen also has his hands full as the IRS comes off a blistering year under fire for overzealous scrutiny of the tea party and other conservative groups seeking tax exemptions. But top challenges for Koskinen, a former Washington D.C. city administrator and senior White House Office of Management and Budget official, are Obamacare implementation and processing requests seeking eligibility for premium tax credits.

“Getting this right is important,” said Brian Haile, vice president for health policy at Jackson Hewitt. He said Koskinen will be dealing with “system and information limitations” and an insurance industry insisting on full enforcement otherwise it can undermine the patient pools.

Obama’s housing agenda also gets a fresh look with Mel Watt, the first regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac confirmed by Congress since August 2009. As head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Watt will be dealing with lawmakers trying to take the two companies off the government’s hand. He also has to decide whether to establish a debt forgiveness program for struggling homeowners.

After his Senate confirmation, Obama called Watt “the right person to protect Americans who work hard and play by the rules every day, and he’ll be the right regulator to make sure the kind of crisis we just went through never happens again.”

In October, Republicans blocked Watt’s confirmation, arguing that Obama was picking a politician over a housing expert to lead the agency. But after the change in filibuster rules, Democrats pushed the 11-term North Carolina congressman’s confirmation through on a mostly party-line vote in December.

“The change in filibuster rules has in my opinion a huge impact on the ability of the president to essentially move forward on his nominees —and to insulate the nominees from political pressure from the Senate with regard to how they will conduct themselves on future policies,” said Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), top Republican on the Banking Committee, speaking of the Watt nomination.

But supporters counter that Watt’s arrival will be critical in putting Obama’s economic policies into place. “This bodes well for low-income people in the U.S. who are having housing issues,” said Sheila Crowley, President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

“I think Mel Watt will have not only more confidence, but with the confirmation, the legitimacy to make more critical decisions,” added Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), a senior member of the Banking Committee.